Wyoming Companion

The wild west of mattress buying

Out here in Wyoming we get more done by 10 A.M than those right-coasters do darn near all day. We pride ourselves on a exhausting work ethic and getting the most out of our bodies from sun up to sun down. Granted, sometimes we get full as a tick the night before and up sleeping …

They say that a cowboy is only as good as his previous night’s sleep and there’s no better evidence than trying to get some work out of a man who was full as a tick in the lush-crib the night before. The truth is sleep is very important and if you don’t get enough shut-eye …

The thing about horse beds is that they really are something unique in themselves. Most people think that horses don’t have beds, that maybe they sleep standing up, or maybe they don’t sleep at all. Maybe they have some sort of nest, like a bug, right? Wrong. Horses have proper beds, some even with nice …

Out here in Wyoming it’s important to maintain a sense of community with your fellow brethren. Like the old saying goes, “we’re all we got, but we’re all we need.” One area where that sentiment echoes immensely is when shopping and choosing to buy from local businesses instead of large block retailers. Some of the …

Too many of us hard working Wyoming folks put ourselves through the rigamarole every night of sleeping on an old, lopsided, crusty bedroll. It’s easy to understand why with big market mattress chains charging hundreds of dollars for their so-called premium beds. The truth is, we believe a good night’s sleep should have to cost …

Out here on the ranch we take in new horses every now and then. When they’re as stubborn as all get up from day one we call them cold-backed. I’ve never met a horse I couldn’t break and in many ways a mattress is very similar. You may get your new bed and at first it might feel like sleeping on flint stones or the hard Wyoming Earth. Just like that one-time bangtail who eventually becomes the star of the stable, have faith that your mattress will break in and give you a great sleep as well.

The Cotton Needs to Settle
Cotton is a soft material good enough for our britches, socks, and other items we hold near and dear to our bodies. It is also used as the main softening agent inside of a mattress. When the cotton is first laid in the bed it’s soft and fluffy like the sheep down on the back nine of the farm. Of course as you sleep on the bed over time that cotton will settle in and provide relaxing comfort. It’s important to note you should rotate your crumb incubator on a regular basis so that cotton doesn’t develop pockets.

Your Body Needs to Adjust
If you’re up before the roosters because you can’t sleep on your new bed, don’t be so anxious to jump the mattress manufacturer. In fact there’s likely nothing wrong with the mattress itself, it could just be your hard-working bones adjusting to sleeping on something that isn’t as hard as the marble Earth. You need to give your body some time to recalibrate your bones and the first few weeks on a new mattress are like a gestation period.

You May Need a New Boxspring
One of the main reasons your new mattress might not feel like the one in the showroom is because you’ve kept your old box springs. It’s tempting to save a few shills by replacing only the mattress but all you’re really doing is increasing the wear of the bed. The mattress will start to contort to the boxspring like a dog running with the pack so it’s important to get the whole kit and caboodle when buying a mattress set.

Showroom Mattresses are Softer
One thing you’ve gotta remember about showroom beds you’ve been trying out is that folks have been climbing all over them for months. The beds on display are used and abused more than a wolfer recovering from a whiskey binge and thus will feel softer than your new bed. The good thing is, your new bed will conform to that feel after using it a couple weeks so be patient.

If It Doesn’t Improve, Get a Comfort Exchange
One of the nice fallbacks of buying from a trusted mattress company is the ability to have a comfort exchange on your bed. If after three weeks or so you’d like the bed made firmer or softer, manufacturers can open her up for surgery and either add more cotton and foam for softness or firming pads for a harder bed.

They say that a cowboy is only as good as his previous night’s sleep and there’s no better evidence than trying to get some work out of a man who was full as a tick in the lush-crib the night before. The truth is sleep is very important and if you don’t get enough shut-eye the animals rule the roost and you’ll be a fortnight behind in chores and other tasks. Here’s why cowboys need to hit the velvet couch earlier on in the night:

Lack of Sleep Leads to Weight Gain

Your trusty horse has noticed a little bit of weight gain and he might just make a run for the Canadian border if your sleep depravity leads to packing on even more pounds. The connection between weight gain and lack of sleep is definitely there. For example how many extra cups of joe do you have in the morning when fighting off sluggishness – not to mention all the other ‘comfort foods’ your body turns to when tuckered out. There are actual hormones known as ghrelin which tells you to eat and leptin which says stop eating and when you’re sleep deprived these and your metabolism get all out of whack.

Lack of Sleep Leads to Sickness

They need you out on the ranch not in bed fighting a whooping cough but that’s exactly where you’ll be with only 3-4 hours of shut eye per night. Studies show that T-cells go down when you’re sleep deprived which leads to a poorly functioning immune system which results in, you guessed it, more illnesses. The next thing you know you’ll be getting the whole darn ranch sick and they’ll be coming after you with a branding iron…so get some sleep!

Sleep Helps Improve Your Memory

You’re going to look pretty dumb yelling out for your Golden Retriever, “Jimmy?, Carl?, Rick?” when his real name is Ace. That’s because lack of sleep also has adverse effects on your memory. Sleep enhances the memory whereas lack of rest causes them to decay as if they’ve been gotten to by buzzards. Experts also say it’s not just the hours of sleep, but the quality as frequent disruptions during the night can be harmful.

Sleep Helps You Perform During the Day

We work hard in Wyoming and deserve a good night’s rest in the evening. Therein lies a slippery slope because if you don’t get sleep then you won’t be able to perform your duties during the day. A good night’s sleep helps recharge the batteries and tackle each day with bright eyes and a bushy tail.

Lack of Sleep Makes You Irritable

When you’re tired, cranky, and irritable from a lack of sleep the littlest things can set you off for no reason. You might find yourself out on the prairie angrily yelling for your dog Jimmy to come running while the whole time Ace is staring at you dumbfounded.

The bottom line, get a good night’s sleep as it will make life easier all the way around and if you aren’t resting sound look into purchasing a new mattress.

There’s two things you can say about us Wyoming citizens – 1) we’re loyal and 2) we respect our money. These are two qualities that are great to have but it can also get us into trouble sometimes. Take for example when it’s time to replace a mattress. We’re fond of our old beds and don’t trust a salesman to try and swindle us out of hard earned shills for some ‘new technology’ that he’s peddling. Well, the truth is as hard as it may be there is a time when we have to buck up and go out with the old and in with the new.

You Wake Up Sore
The hard Wyoming lifestyle of rolling over bumpy plains and tending to hard labor could be making you sore in the morning – or it could be your croaker of a mattress that should have been replaced years ago. When a bed gets old the materials inside of it become compressed, broken apart, and flat which results in a poor night’s sleep. This reduces the amount of padding between your spine and the hard surface which beckons back to night’s slept under the stars during a cattle rustle.

You Sleep Great Elsewhere
One great indicator of whether a defunct mattress is causing your pain or more serious health problems is if you wake up spry as a baby kitten when sleeping elsewhere. Whether it be a hotel, a jail cell, or just your couch feeling different when sleeping in other areas is a sign that your mattress has probably seen better days.

You Can See Visible Wear and Tear
Your bed is ready to be sent to pasture (not literally, make sure to dispose of old beds properly) if you can look at it and see noticeable lumps and clots. If these are visible to the naked eye, just imagine how they feel on the naked body? A bed that is sagging or God forbid has springs sticking out of it is what we refer to as a Code Blue – as in you blew it by not replacing this mattress a decade ago.

Your Bed Is Old
There’s an unfortunate fact of life that your mattress only has so many sleeps in it before it kicks the bucket. Of course you can try and preserve the life span by sleeping on the floor every so often but we do that enough on accident after a batch of deadshot. The truth is once a mattress hits 10-12 years or older the end is probably sooner rather than later.

Your Partner Wakes Up Aching
Your bed partner is probably mad at you enough for stealing the covers, kicking them, and delivering flying elbows during a nightmare fit so you don’t need an old mattress to compound those problems. When a bed is new the springs and material work together to avoid disrupting the person or pet on the other half of the bed. As those materials break down every little movement seems like a bucking bull is in the bed with you. If indeed there is no bull, it’s time to upgrade the mattress.

Any experienced cowboy has probably been dusted by an outlaw horse at least a few times in his life. While we rarely meet a hoss we can’t break, sometimes we just have to buck down and call the horse whisperer to help get the bronc’s head right. Well, believe it or not there’s an industry professional that can give you a better night’s sleep in much of the same way and it’s not a shrink. A so-called ‘mattress surgeon’ can open up your bed and make it feel just right.

Adding Firming Agents

When a hearty craftsperson goes to work on your new mattress, the first layer of material on top the springs is a polyester padding. This padding serves a couple purposes, mostly to keep cotton and foam from getting caught up in the springs but also to add a core level of firmness to the bed. Another process called button tufting involves lacing a fabric through one side of the bed, between the springs, and pulling the other end on the other side of the bed. This method helps connect the material on both sides of the bed so it doesn’t pull apart but also makes the bed feel firmer.

Add Softer Materials

If you find that your sleeproll is too firm, then the obvious answer is to add more softening materials to it – kinda like when your sleeping under the stars and use more hay because the ground is so hard. An extra layer of cotton on both sides of the bed or the addition of extra foam pieces can really make a bed much more soft if that’s what trips your trigger finger.

Attach Edge Supports

Perhaps the most uncomfortable sleep ever is the one where you constantly feel like you’re going to roll off the bed on top of Old Rusty your Golden Retriever. This is due either to a buildup of materials in the middle of the bed or the lack of any supports on the edge of the mattress. Luckily the mattress Doc can open up the bed and add additional edge supports, for Old Rusty’s sake at least.

Use a Pillowtop Covering

There is an adjustment period associated with buying any new mattress but that sense of newness should subside after about a fortnight of sleep. One thing you may still experience after that time period is joint pain because of constant force on pressure points. One solution we’ve found to work is the implementation of a pillow top covering that provides more plush resistance and an extra layer of cushion for shoulders, knees, and hips.

Change Boxspring Type

If every possible mattress surgical procedure has been attempted, another area to provide a comfort change is with a different boxspring type. Depending on what’s in place now the switch can be made to a split boxspring to limit partner disturbance, a solid foundation for more firmness, or actual springs for more cushion and bounce back.

We had an old horse Rusty who served our ranch well for over 20 years. As ol’ Rusty got to be a tired soft horse in unbearable pain, we put him out to pasture with honor. There’s a similar undertaking that we have to do ever so often with a lumpy old mattress. The big bulky objects don’t make for good fires to cook your pork n’ beans over and in fact, proper disposal of them is an important manner to keep our Wyoming land beautiful.

Give Away

If you’ve just decided to upgrade to a better feeling mattress and not because of the bed’s age, see if one of your Wyoming neighbors could use a new bed. It can be a touchy subject but many times a person down to the blanket will greatly appreciate a new place to lay their head provided the bed is in good condition. Some thrift shops take old mattresses while others do not so just give a holler.

Recycle Components

If your bed is too old and crusty to give away, you can still break down the materials for better disposal. Up to 90% of the cotton, foam, and other fixings of a mattress can be recycled and springs and coils can actually make you some money at the salvage center.

Now you wouldn’t necessarily buy a ranch truck from an unknown manufacturer with the name of ‘Jim’s Trucks’ on the hood but when looking at a mattress it’s actually recommended to step outside the comfort zone of your Sealy’s, Certa’s, and Denver Mattress Company. In fact the little guys in the mattress industry often provide the most product knowledge and customer service that will truly allow you to pick the proper bedroll for your aching back.

Crafted Themselves
The best part about buying a mattress from a ma and pa shop is because it’s crafted with care and dignity. We’re a people that take pride in our work whether it’s scooping out the stables or building a bed that will let our neighbors get the rest they deserve. Handcrafted beds don’t cost any more because there’s no middle man and they can be made to order whether a person likes a little softer or harder bed. You want your bed to have a personality, not just be one of 90 made that day.

More Flexible in Guarantees
There’s a lot better chance of being satisfied when you shop local because sole proprietors run their own business. If you want your bed made softer or harder a couple times after sleeping on it they can work with you and not just say, “sorry ma’am that’s against our policy.”

Become a Customer For Life
You never know when a big block store is just going to up and leave depending on the whim of their executives across the coast. On the other hand if you support a local Wyoming craftsman you can make sure their business thrives and thus stays in the area for as long as they’re fit to work or have young’uns that are apt to take over.

Out here in Wyoming it’s important to maintain a sense of community with your fellow brethren. Like the old saying goes, “we’re all we got, but we’re all we need.” One area where that sentiment echoes immensely is when shopping and choosing to buy from local businesses instead of large block retailers. Some of the items you’ll be buying are made from a friend of a friend of a friend’s neighbor and it’s important to keep our funds in this beautiful state. Specifically, here’s why buying a mattress from a large chain is pudding foot.

Too Many Selections
Shopping at a big brand mattress shack can be confusing, especially with silly names and more beds than a bald cowboy has war bonnets. It’s hard to find the perfect sleeproll for your choosing because there’s simply too much variation. Now, choices are nice when it comes to rum holes but when trying out mattress after mattress you just get confused and disoriented.

Mass Produced
Another thing about a wide selection of mattresses is that they lack personality. The beds are built like in an assembly line with no care here nor there. On the other hand a small mattress company will build your bed with care, often associating your name to it and treating it like an individual. “Hey did you get Jimmy Ray’s Queen Size done? He’s been fighting a sore back after that scrap with Tony Weston.”

Corporate Policies In Place
Another downfall of buying at the big box suppliers is that they lack any flexibility in their policies put in place by a corporate dictator. They’re not allowed to haggle as we’ve become so good at in our Wyoming culture. Forget about getting a free bed frame or a few bucks off the purchase price because the corporate shills will have to, “ask my manager.”

Ranchers know that there’s nothing worse than a canner horse, one where the only concern is that he’ll give somebody’s trusted dog bad indigestion. Well in the mattress industry we deal with canner beds too. It isn’t even necessarily bottom barrel products we’re talking here as a number of good folks have spent a shiny coin looking for a good night’s sleep only to find lumpy, lopsided bedding about a month into ownership. Here are some things that make for a bad bed.

Edges Break Down

Us Cowboys know how hard it can be to get our boots on and head down for morning coffee, especially after a full day of ranching the previous daybreak. Our biggest assistance is the side of the bed that lessens the distance between our stache and our spurs. A poor quality bed will have weak edges that break down within a few months of purchase so look out.

Inferior Cotton and Foam

There’s a process called button-tufting that holds the cotton on two sides of a mattress together. In cheaper beds this step is skipped and the result is pockets in the mattress from cotton sifting apart and foam being flattened. Nothing makes a cowboy down in the mouth more than a bad night’s sleep.

Poor Coil Count

Just like the headliner of a meal is the steak, the heart of a mattress is the coils. Poor quality mattresses are constructed of weak, sparse, or thin coils that will break down in just a few fortnights.

Lack of Extra Features

It’s nice to have extra features on a bed that makes your toiling easier. Something as little as a handle on the side that makes the mattress easier to flip goes a long way.

Don’t get dusted by a mattress that needs putting to pasture in a short time, make sure to buy a high-quality product.

When we spend a few extra spoons on a quality horse, we know what we’re supposed to be getting – a dependable steed that will serve his duty for years to come. Some other areas of spending extra scuds aren’t so trustworthy though and it’s easy to see why a person would get skin flint. One such shopping item that seems to vary greatly in price is a mattress so what do you really get for ponying up that extra tin? We at Wyoming Companion believe this through and through.

More Coils

The coil support is the lifeblood of your mattress and obviously the more there are the longer the bed will last. Coils that rotate opposite of each other also help for a sounder sleep that won’t bother the person or Golden Retriever sleeping next to you.

Side Support

It’s comfortable sitting on the edge of the bed in the morn to put your boots on but that is really damaging to a mattress, breaking down the sides and leaving you likely to roll right off on to the floor in the middle of the night. Edge supports are a spring loaded doo-hickey that supports the weight of your body so the mattress frame doesn’t have to.

Longer Warranty / Comfort Guarantee

One of the hard parts of buying a mattress is that the stores don’t let you sleep over for a couple weeks to see if you truly love the feel of the bed. Spending a little more on a mattress up front gives you customer service that includes a comfort guarantee where they can open up the bed and make it firmer or softer depending on your tastes.

While it might seem futile to part with extra banknote on a mattress, it’s a wise investment that you literally use daily.

The mattress industry can often represent the Wild West with scoundrels and rapscallions seemingly populating the market. It’s easy to see how folks are a little hesitant about forking over their hard earned shills to what is seemingly nothing more than an old fashion con artist. It’s true, there are some shysters out there but the mattress industry is also full of some hard working and honest people like us. Here’s the rundown.

The Good

Believe it or not there are folks in the mattress industry that simply want the best for their fellow Wyoming citizen. For instance if we can provide high quality foam and cotton mattresses that gives you the sleep you need to get chores done without being tech savvy as a teased snake while we make a liveable coin than we’ve done our job.

The Bad

Unfortunately there are fly by night swindlers that feed you whatever you want to hear just to sell you a bed. They may lie about the materials used in the bed, fib about the spring count, and charge you well above market value for a bedroll that’s simply not worth the price. These scoundrels exist only to make a quick buck and don’t have your best interest in mind at all – just delivering Tinker’s news.

The Ugly

Perhaps the only thing worse than paying large amounts of money for a mattress that isn’t worth a hill of beans is purchasing one that’s already been used. All too many manufacturers take part in this trickery selling used beds as new or recycling materials from the inside of old hen skins. You wouldn’t wear another man’s boots and you surely don’t want to lay your head where his hat was once.

There’s a lot of good bed professionals out there, so make sure you get a good one.